July 14, 2016

Mike Pence for VP?

It appears that tomorrow Trump will select Indiana government as his VP nominee. It's not confirmed yet but the din around it has grown all day.

Well...

...that's a dull pick, even for a Republican governor with a 100% conservative rating from the American Conservative Union (a definite point in favor of Pence), the pick is still dull. Indiana is a Republican voting state. There's no gain in that regard. In fact, by not picking someone from Ohio or Pennsylvania you could argue Trump actually harmed his chances. If you believe the role of the VP nominee is to deliver a state's electoral votes.

And there's also no flair (perhaps Trump feels he has all he needs). Pence is dull. Pence is not possessing strong approval ratings in Indiana. So that doesn't help either.

But it might steady the nerves of the National Review editorial staff. So there's that.

I'm willing to wait and see, because the press has been sop wrong about Trump, they could bew wrong about this too. Pence would make a good VP, the problem is that he doesn't do anything obvious to help the ticket. You need to win before you get to hold the position. Maybe Pence can help the ticket if his VP opponent turns out to be Bernie Sanders. The contrast will be stark.